TOLIS Group Knowledge Base

Backup the BRU PE Environment

Backup the BRU PE Environment

Like other TOLIS Group products, backing up the backup applications environment to ensure that you have a backup copy of your tapes, archives and catalogs is an important process. Periodically, we suggest daily for high volume backup users and weekly for low volume backup users, the BRU PE environment should be backed up to either tape, CD/DVD/Disk, or even a USB flash drive.

Regardless of what media you choose to backup the BRU PE environment, the important directory to backup is "/Library/Application Support/BRU PE/" -- that is where the BRU PE application saves information pertaining to tapes, the catalog files and archive information. We also suggest that you backup the BRU PE application itself (located in /Applications), but it is not required.

Backup to Tape

With BRU PE, the process of backing up the BRU PE environment is a simple process. Using the BRU PE Doubler Archive Mode™ you can even backup the environment to two separate tapes at once so that you have and onsite and offsite copy. This is the preferred method since you will have two copies on tape if disaster were to ever strike.

Create a backup job using the Advanced interface. This way, after you have created the job you can then save it so future BRU PE environment backups will be faster. This also permits you to schedule the backup in the event that you choose to backup the BRU PE environment on a regular basis.

Select the path of /Library/Application Support/BRU PE/ for backup. You may also navigate to this folder using Finder™ to drag-and-drop the BRU folder into the BRU PE window.

Select full, incremental or differential backup. If you have never backed up the BRU PE environment before, then this job must be a full backup job as BRU PE cannot perform an incremental or differential backup without having performed a full at a prior time. We suggest that you always perform a full backup of the BRU PE environment so that you have all of the BRU PE data that is needed if you ever need to restore the data. Performing a full backup will also prevent you from having to perform multiple restore operations to completely restore the BRU PE environment.

Select the tape drive in which you want BRU PE to write the archive. If you elect to use the Doubler Archive Mode, please make sure that both tape drives have tapes. We suggest that you dedicate two tapes to the BRU PE environment so as not to create confusion as to which tape has the BRU PE environment.

Save the backup job and name the job something like "BRU PE Environment Backup" or another name that will fully describe to you what the backup job does or backs up.

Run the backup. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour depending on the speed of your tape drive, the size of the BRU PE environment and if you have elected to perform a full or incremental backup.

Backup to CD/DVD/Disk

While BRU PE cannot write directly to CD/DVD media, you can perform a backup to disk and then burn the archive file to CD/DVD using Finder. We suggest with this method that you write the BRU PE environment to your Desktop and then drag-and-drop the archive onto a blank CD/DVD for burning. If you want two copies you will need to perform the burn operation in two steps, once for the first disk and once for the second disk.

Create a backup job using the Advanced interface. This way, after you have created the job you can then save it so future BRU PE environment backups will be faster. This also permits you to schedule the backup in the event that you choose to backup the BRU PE environment on a regular basis.

Select the path of /Library/Application Support/BRU PE/ for backup. You may also navigate to this folder using Finder™ to drag-and-drop the BRU folder into the BRU PE window.

Select full, incremental or differential backup. If you have never backed up the BRU PE environment before, then this job must be a full backup job as BRU PE cannot perform an incremental or differential backup without having performed a full at a prior time. We suggest that you always perform a full backup of the BRU PE environment so that you have all of the BRU PE data that is needed if you ever need to restore the data. Performing a full backup will also prevent you from having to perform multiple restore operations to completely restore the BRU PE environment.

Select the Desktop of the user in which you want BRU PE to write the archive. Archive Doubler Mode can only be used with tape drives and is not currently available for disk backups.

Save the backup job and name the job something like "BRU PE Environment Backup" or another name that will fully describe to you what the backup job does or backs up.

Run the backup. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour depending on the speed of your system, the size of the BRU PE environment and if you have elected to perform a full or incremental backup.

Backup to USB Flash Drive

Backing up to a USB flash drive is done in much the same way as a backup to disk. By selecting the USB flash drive in the backup window, BRU PE will write the archive directly to the USB flash drive. Please make sure that any USB flash drive that you use is large enough to support the complete archive. If you are unsure of how large the archive will be, first write the archive to the Desktop, then right-click (Command-Click on a one-button mouse) on the archive file, select "Get Info..." from the menu and check the size of the archive to verify if the USB flash drive is large enough to support the full archive file.

Create a backup job using the Advanced interface. This way, after you have created the job you can then save it so future BRU PE environment backups will be faster. This also permits you to schedule the backup in the event that you choose to backup the BRU PE environment on a regular basis.

Select the path of /Library/Application Support/BRU PE/ for backup. You may also navigate to this folder using Finder™ to drag-and-drop the BRU folder into the BRU PE window.

Select full, incremental or differential backup. If you have never backed up the BRU PE environment before, then this job must be a full backup job as BRU PE cannot perform an incremental or differential backup without having performed a full at a prior time. We suggest that you always perform a full backup of the BRU PE environment so that you have all of the BRU PE data that is needed if you ever need to restore the data. Performing a full backup will also prevent you from having to perform multiple restore operations to completely restore the BRU PE environment.

Select the USB flash drive in which you want BRU PE to write the archive. Archive Doubler Mode can only be used with tape drives and is not currently available for disk backups.

Save the backup job and name the job something like "BRU PE Environment Backup" or another name that will fully describe to you what the backup job does or backs up.

Run the backup. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour depending on the speed of your system, the size of the BRU PE environment and if you have elected to perform a full or incremental backup.